Lakewood @ Savannah Game 2 Notes

Another night, another Lakewood win. Tonight's game really showed just how important defensive play can be even at the lower levels of the minor leagues. This game swung on the defensive play of both teams center fielders and third basemen.

For the Phillies, Travis Mattair made a spectacular play on defense to save a run early. I'm not sure I can describe just how brilliant the play was in words, but I'll give it a shot. In the pouring rain, a bloop is hit directly behind Mattair at third base. Mattair takes off to the spot (textbook D), and looks straight up and the very last moment to time his dive. Mattair lays out head first and cradles the ball in his glove in shallow left field. It was truly one of the greatest plays I've ever seen in person when considering the field conditions. Later in the game, he made a one handed play on a slow hit ground ball to throw out the runner by a step which was also top notch.

To put his defense into perspective, when tweeting Mattair was the best third baseman i'd seen this season, Kevin Goldstein from Baseball Prospectus replied to the effect of my being able to travel the entire country and not see a third baseman as good as Mattair defensively; High praise indeed.

On the Mets side, Jefry Marte made yet another error which led to a couple of runs. Additionally, he was unable to turn a double play on a line drive when he had the runner on first dead to rights.

In center field, Anthony Gose made two diving catches in left-center field on balls he had no business getting to. In comparison, Lakewood's first run off of Kyle Allen came when Gnats center fielder Sean Ratliff took a so-so angle to a line drive which forced a wild dive for a ball which rolled to the center field fence.

As for the pitchers, Kyle Allen was 90-92 the entire night. He hit 93 once on the gun, and really turned it up a notch to Anthony Gose and Travis D'Arnaud. His strikeout of D'Arnaud on a sharp slider after busting him in on four fastballs between 91-93 MPH was big league material. However, he struggled some controlling the slider and poor pitch calling took him out of his rhythm a few times. One notable case was a first pitch slider to Lakewood's 5'9" shorstop named Hanzawa. When throwing a slider to a slider speed bat, expect bloop hits. Hanzawa did just that and wound up scoring the only run against him on the evening. I suspect Allen will learn and attack the next time he's in the same situation. Allen also induced a number of fly balls which was unlike him. Usually a ground ball machine, he left a number of fastballs up in the zone. While it's great to work up from time to time in an attempt to set up or punch out an opposing hitter. Consistently working letter high could spell big trouble at upper levels. Waste the 1-2 up at the eyes.

To sum up Allen's performance:

FB - 90-92 MPH, topping at 93
SL - 83-85 MPH, racked up a couple of K's with it.
CH - 84 MPH, worked the outside corner to righties well. With his break, he should drop it on the outside corner more to lefties.

Lakewood's starter, Heitor Correa, was solid, but unspectacular. In seeing him in the stands during the first game of the series, Correa's body was soft and he really needs a good strength and conditioning program. As for his performance...

FB - 87-90 MPH, topping out at 91. His fastball had little movement. He also seemed to mix in a two-seamer at 83-85. If it was actually his change, it was an awfully hard change.
SL - 82-83 MPH. Movement wasn't particularly tight. He had trouble controlling the pitch and it more of a sweeping offering.
CB - 75-77 MPH, His best pitch in the pen, he hung it a handful of times in game action and didn't throw it often enough.
CH - See FB. If this was his CH, it had little movement.

As for the Lakewood offense, Kyle Allen consistently worked both Gose and D'Arnaud inside with excellent success. Both need to learn to better handle inside pitches and keep their hands inside the baseball.

D'Arby Myers was impressive as he peppered balls all over the field and accounting for two of the three hits Kyle Allen allowed. With a double to right, and two line drives to center field, he was the offensive star of the game. At .326/..373/.442 post all star break, he may not be the 9-hole hitter for long.